Of absent fathers and pictures frames
by Macky19
Summary: Johnny baby-sits Two-Bit's younger sister, and he expects to be miserable. But in a strange turn of events, he discovers he may have judged the young girl and learns that they may be more alike than he thought.


I found this saved in one of my folders and thought "hey why not?"

Please review

Johnny, please please please." Two-Bit begged for what felt the thousandth. He was beginning to think that he wasn't over exaggerating and that Two-Bit had actually asked a thousand times. It sure seemed like it

Apparently, the older greaser had promised his mother that he would babysit his kid sister, and now he was trying to convince Johnny to do it for him, so he could go out with Dally and Steve. And Johnny was not having it.

Johnny didn't like little kids. He didn't know why. Dally didn't like them because of their innocence, he claimed it made them annoying. The hood didn't like how clueless they were, and Johnny partially agreed.

But he just didn't like them, he supposed it might have been that he never got to be a little kid. Growing up with parents who didn't love you really ruined your chance to be a child.

"No, Two, I can't." He pleaded, getting angrier and angrier by the second. Well, angry for him. Sure he could be sassy and a smart ass at times, but he wouldn't yell or get into an actual fight. He didn't know why Two-Bit kept pushing when he had already said no.

Maybe it was because Johnny would never truly get mad at him. To make things worse Johnny was known for being a pushover. He could never truly refuse to do anything for anyone in the gang. Deep down inside, he knew that the older greaser would win.

"Why?" He whined lousy, sounding like a kid himself. Johnny rubbed his forehead tiredly, trying to think of an excuse.

"I have school work." Two-Bit laughed at this.

"Awe, Johnnycake, I know that you don't care none 'bout your school work." He said teasingly This was true, Johnny disliked school more than little kids. He would rather have to babysit every day than ever have to go back to school.

He finally gave in, and Two-Bit have a small cheer of victory. He sighed, shaking his head to heavens murmuring, "why me?"

He slowly realized that not only didn't like to babysit, he also didn't know how to. He didn't have any younger siblings, so didn't know how to deal with them. He sat on the rug in the younger girl's room. She stared at him with big blue eyes, chewing her lip. He sighed, he didn't even know her name, how was he supposed to occupy her?

"So what do you like to do?" He asked.

He didn't get an answer, just a glare, he sighed, looking around the room. Grey walls, a simple bed, a few pictures. Not a whole lot, but at least she had a roof over her head. That made him happy for some reason, at least this young girl had somewhere to call home.

His eyes drifted over to the picture frames, observing them one by one. An old looking picture of her and Two-Bit, and almost right next to it a newer version. There were a few pictures of some flowers and animals. Finally, the last one was of her and an older woman.

"That your mother?" He asked

She nodded, putting her thumb in her mouth. He thought hard for another question to ask her, at least when he was talking it wasn't as awkward.

"You look like her." He said casually. "Keith looks like our dad." She responded sassily.

The little girl's thumb was out of her mouth, and those blue eyes were narrowed again. He thought that mentioning her dad would have made her burst into tears. But she didn't even look like she even cared.

He sat there for a moment, and the younger Mathews sibling stared at him. He opened his mouth, to say that he was sorry, but he closed it again. It wouldn't do any good anyways.

"He left before I was born." She said, flames dancing in her eyes. "He didn't want us.

"My dad doesn't want me either, he would leave, if he could." He said, before slapping his hands over his mouth. He never told anyone about his father's feelings towards him, not even Dally. And yet, here he was telling an eight-year-old, whom he knew for less than ten minutes.

"It's hard isn't it?" He murmured, standing up and stretching, before sitting down next to her on the bed.

"Huh?" Those big blue eyes looked up at him, thoughtfully, much too intelligent for an eight-year-old. "Not having a dad?" He explained, slowly, curling himself into a ball.

"It is, but it's not all bad." She said softly

"Yeah?" He said, surprised at her optimism. "Yeah, cause I have Keith, and he cares about me." He nodded slowly before she said another thing that surprised him.

"He cares about you too, ya know. He told me." He smiled softly at this.

"Thanks, kid." He said softly. She flashed him that cocky smile of hers. It reminded him a lot of Two-Bit.

"My name's not kid, it's Karen."

The next day, Johnny was smoking a cigarette with Dally, who was angry and hungover, when Two-Bit came over and slung a protective arm around his shoulders.

"She likes you ya know." He said happily. Johnny smiled softly at this. "Huh?" Dally asked softly, blue eyes ironically narrowed. But he just ignored this question, shaking his head. "Nothing, Dal."

"Absolutely nothing."


End file.
